Eric and I went out to Fort Lupton Colorado today for USGBC Colorado’s tour of “Travelers Rest” a new home designed by Halcyon Design (Kelly Deitman) and built by Mainstream Corporation (Cody and Lisa Farmer.)  It was everything a Passive House aspires to be.  The home was energy efficient, well daylit, and comfortable.  Interestingly, the homes design detoured from many Passive Houses designed to meet the strict criterion of PHIUS. Frankly, many Passive Houses often resemble giant cubes.  Most of these homes surface areas are optimized to minimize heat loss through walls and the glazing’s are carefully designed for solar radiation. This home was different; it was a beautiful, well lit, and rustically styled Colorado ranch.  I’m not sure anyone would suspect it was a Passiv Haus.  The only sense one would have of this, is it’s extreme quiet that lends itself to prairie solitude and the high level of  comfort that comes from the homes lack of drafts. 

While we are wrapping up our first home that meets the Passive House model, I left “Travelers Rest” feeling uplifted and excited to be part of a new construction era.  One where we have a high level of respect for our limited resources and the sense of excitement from seeing beautiful craftsmanship.

 J.

Hello from Fort Collins, CO and welcome to our blog! We write about Passive House construction, our area of focus. We are taking a sustainable and regenerative approach to home building, and hoping to influence the residential construction world to rethink building practices and start considering our natural environment in all steps of the building process. We hope you will follow along with us on this exciting journey!